Error: could not find function “%>%”

Question

I'm running an example in R, going through the steps and everything is working so far except for this code produces an error:

 words <- dtm %>%
 as.matrix %>%
 colnames %>%
 (function(x) x[nchar(x) < 20])

Error: could not find function "%>%"

I don't understand what the benefit of using this special operator %>% is, and any feedback would be great.

Answer 1

You need to load a package (like magrittr or dplyr) that defines the function first, then it should work.

install.packages("magrittr") # package installations are only needed the first time you use it
install.packages("dplyr")    # alternative installation of the %>%
library(magrittr) # needs to be run every time you start R and want to use %>%
library(dplyr)    # alternatively, this also loads %>%

The pipe operator %>% was introduced to "decrease development time and to improve readability and maintainability of code."

But everybody has to decide for himself if it really fits his workflow and makes things easier. For more information on magrittr, click here.

Not using the pipe %>%, this code would return the same as your code:

words <- colnames(as.matrix(dtm))
words <- words[nchar(words) < 20]
words

---

EDIT: (I am extending my answer because of a very useful comment that was made by @Molx)

Despite being from magrittr, the pipe operator is more commonly used with the package dplyr (which requires and loads magrittr), so whenever you see someone using %>% make sure you shouldn't load dplyr instead.

Answer 2

On Windows: if you use %>% inside a %dopar% loop, you have to add a reference to load package dplyr (or magrittr, which dplyr loads).

Example:

plots <- foreach(myInput=iterators::iter(plotCount), .packages=c("RODBC", "dplyr")) %dopar%
{
    return(getPlot(myInput))
}

If you omit the .packages command, and use %do% instead to make it all run in a single process, then works fine. The reason is that it all runs in one process, so it doesn't need to specifically load new packages.